“The oldest part of Variety Shade was built in 1798 by Colonel William Moseley and added to about 1822. It was the plantation home of Marcia Louise Moseley and her husband, Colonel Thomas Moseley Bondurant, for many years.

Colonel Thomas Moseley Bondurant was a large land owner and a prominent legislator from Buckingham County. He was also an exporter of tobacco who traveled to foreign countries and brought back trees from various places and planted them on the lawn. The trees were varied and cast shadows in such variety that the name “Variety Shade” was given the place.

For many years Variety Shade remained in the Bondurant family but the owners lived in other places and the place deteriorated. It was sold to the Continental Can Company. Now nothing remains of this lovely plantation except in the memory of those who loved and admired it.”

from the book The Courthouse Burned
by Margaret A. Pennington & Lorna Scott

Other VSLVA Historical Materials

  • Emily Morrison Bondurant – Reminiscences of My Life (1916) Link.
  • Essay: Variety Shade  As I Remember It, by Sarah Adams. Link.
  • Bondurant-Morrison Family Papers, Accession 3918, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library. Link.This collection consist of ca. 16,000 items, 1787-1936, and contains the papers of the Bondurant family of Buckingham County, Virginia, and the Morrison family of Rockbridge County, Virginia who were related through the marriage of Alexander Joseph Bondurant and Emily MacFarland Morrison in 1859.
  • Sugg family history UK, VA, NC, TN, KY,TX. By Joan Wickham Sugg. Link.
  • The Captives Of Abb’s Valley: A Legend Of Frontier Life, by James Moore Brown. Available on Amazon.com at this link. The book is available online through archive.org through this link.
  • The History of Jean-Pierre Bondurant, prepared by Susan Veneable. Born in Génolhac, France 18 July 1677, Jean Pierre (John Peter) Bondurant escaped to Switzerland in 1697, and reached Jamestown with other Huguenots in 1700. Trained as an apothecary, he practiced medicine in Virginia where he married Ann. Members of King William Parish. He died near Manakin 1734/35. Link.
From Emily Morrison Bondurant – Reminiscences of My Life (1916) Link